The white-throated treecreeper (''Cormobates leucophaea'') is an

Australian treecreeper There are seven species of Australasian treecreeper in the passerine bird family Climacteridae. They are medium-small, mostly brown birds with patterning on their underparts, and all are endemic to Australia-New Guinea. They resemble, but are no ...

found in the forests of eastern Australia. It is unrelated to the northern hemisphere

treecreeper The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa. The family contains eleven species in two genera, '' Certhia'' and '' Salpornis''. Their plumage ...

s. It is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird with predominantly brown and white plumage and measuring some 15 cm (6 in) long on average. It is insectivorous, eating mainly ants. Unlike treecreepers of the genus ''Climacteris'', the white-throated treecreeper does not engage in

cooperative breeding Cooperative breeding is a social system characterized by alloparental care: offspring receive care not only from their parents, but also from additional group members, often called helpers. Cooperative breeding encompasses a wide variety of group s ...

, and wherever it overlaps with species of that genus, it feeds upon much looser bark besides typically using different trees.

Taxonomy

It was first described by ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as ''Certhia leucophaea''. For many years it was classified in the genus ''Climacteris''. The

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''kormos'' ' trunk of a tree', and 'batēs' from the verb 'to go' or 'to travel', and refers to its mode of walking up and down trees.Higgins ''et al.'' p. 197 Its specific name is derived from the Ancient Greek ''leuko-'' 'white' and ''phaios'' 'dun' or 'dusky', and refers to its plumage. Some guidebooks have the binomial name written as ''Cormobates leucophaeus'', however a review in 2001 rules that the genus name was feminine, hence ''leucophaea'' is the correct specific name. The Papuan treecreeper (''Cormobates placens'') was previously considered a subspecies but is now recognized as a separate species, although molecular studies have yet to be done on the two taxa.

Subspecies

Five subspecies are recognised: *''C. l. leucophaea'', the nominate subspecies, occurs in southeastern Australia, from southeastern South Australia, through Victoria to south and central eastern New South Wales. *''C. l. grisescens'' is found in the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

of South Australia. *''C. l. intermedius'', described in 1983 by Walter Boles and Wayne Longmore, is restricted to the Clark and Connors Ranges in Central Queensland. *''C. l. metastasis'', described by

Richard Schodde Richard Schodde, OAM (born 23 September 1936) is an Australian botanist and ornithologist. Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide, where he received a BSc (Hons) in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the CSI ...

in 1989, is found in southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. *''C. l. minor'' occurs in northern Queensland. It was originally described by

Edward Pierson Ramsay Edward Pierson Ramsay FRSEFLS LLD (3 December 1842 – 16 December 1916) was an Australian zoologist who specialised in ornithology. Early life Ramsay was born in Dobroyd Estate, Long Cove, Sydney, and educated at St Mark's Collegiate School, Th ...

in 1891 after being collected near Cairns.

Description

Measuring 13–17 cm (5–7 in) in length with a wingspan of , averaging , and averaging 22 g (0.8 oz) in weight, it has a white throat and breast and barred dark-brown and white belly and flanks. The upperparts and wings are a dark greyish brown, with a buff patch visible on the wings. Unlike other treecreepers, it does not have a pale eyebrow. The bill and feet are black. The female has a pale orange-brown patch on the cheek. Immature birds have an orange-brown rump and white markings on the scapulars. The call is a shrill peeping.

Distribution and habitat

The white-throated treecreeper is found from the

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger S ...

in South Australia, through Victoria, and eastern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland, with an area further north from Mount Spec to

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repai ...

. Wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest is the preferred habitat. It is Protected in Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974.

Feeding

The white-throated treecreeper is predominantly insectivorous, eating mainly ants, although will eat also nectar. A 2007 study in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

showed the white-throated treecreeper preferred foraging on the rough-barked eucalypt, the red stringybark (''

Eucalyptus macrorhyncha ''Eucalyptus macrorhyncha'', commonly known as the red stringybark, is a species of medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, stringy, grey to brown bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between se ...

''), rather than the smooth barked species, the inland scribbly gum (''

Eucalyptus rossii ''Eucalyptus rossii'', commonly known as inland scribbly gum or white gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It has smooth bark with insect scribbles, lance-shap ...

''). Birds would glean (take prey while bird is perched) and peer, as well as drill in dead wood, for insects. A female was observed feeding on white punk ('' Laetiporus portentosus''), a bracket fungus.

Breeding

Unlike treecreepers of the genus ''Climacteris'', the white-throated treecreeper does not engage in cooperative breeding. The breeding season is August to December with one brood laid. The cup-shaped nest is composed of fur, hair, feathers, and moss in a hollow in a tree above the ground. A clutch of two or three creamy-white oval

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s is laid. Sparsely spotted with dark purple- or red-brown, they measure 23 x 18 mm.

References

Cited text

External links

White-throated Treecreeper videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q303172 white-throated treecreeper Birds of Queensland Birds of New South Wales Birds of Victoria (Australia) Birds of South Australia Endemic birds of Australia white-throated treecreeper Articles containing video clips